Spotswood College Alumni

REPRESENTATIVE LAWN BOWLS:
The Lawn Bowls 2026/2027 Taranaki representative season is underway and congratulations to Adam Collins (2004-2008) who was recently selected in the Mens' team that played against Whanganui.

TWO EX-SPOTSWOODIANS AWARDED 2026 N.P. CITIZENS' AWARDS:
The annual New Plymouth District Council's Citizens' Awards were held on Thursday 30th July with 10 citizens being recognised.
Among the recipients were two ex-spotswoodians.
A big congratulations to former classmates Bryce Barnett MNZM (1968-1971) and Hon. Harry Duynhoven QSM. MA (1968-1971) who were recognised for their personal contribution to the local community.
Both Bryce and Harry were awarded Alumni Service Awards at the inaugural 2026 Spotswood College Alumni Trust Awards function held at The Plymouth Hotel in April.
The Taranaki Daily News ran the below feature.

SPOTSWOOD'S FIRST SENIOR SPORTING NZ REPRESENTATIVE:
Barnett Bond (1964-1967).
Dr. Barnett Bond MB.ChB (Otago, 1975) was the very first ex-Spotswoodian to represent New Zealand at the senior level.
While studying at the University of Otago Medical school in Dunedin, Barnett was selected for the NZ Commonwealth Games team to compete at the IX Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1970.
Barnett competed in an impressive 7 events (4 individual and 3 relays) and swam in 5 finals (Fastest 8 swimmers).
His results were:
100m Backstroke qualifying 1min 06.67secs 11th.
200m Backstroke final 2mins 20.01secs 8th
200m Medley final 2mins 23.24secs 8th
400m Medley qualifying 5mns 08.40secs 9th
4 x 100m Freestyle Relay final 5th
4 x 100m Medley Relay final 6th
4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final 4th
In November, 1965- Barnett's older brother Stephen (was in the 7th form and one of Taranaki's outstanding Freestyle swimmers) received an Athletic scholarship at the University of Oregon, USA. to start his 4 year degree in January, 1966.

SPOTSWOOD COLLEGE ALUMNI- COMMONWEALTH GAMES REPRESENTATIVES:
With the 2026 Commonwealth Games currently being held in Glasgow, Scotland we can reflect on the successes of our 7 ex-Spotswoodians who have competed at this International event.

1970 Barnett Bond (1964) Swimming IX Games. Edinburgh, Scotland

1978 Paul Ballinger (1968) Athletics XI Games. Edmonton, Canada

2002 Nick Daly (1997) Wrestling XVII Games. Manchester, England

2006 Dillon Boucher (1989) Basketball XVIII Games. Melbourne, Australia

2010 Amanda McGregor (1986) Archery XIX Games. Delhi, India

2018 Toby FitzPatrick (2000) Wrestling XXI Games. Gold Coast, Australia

2018 Aidan Zittersteijn (2013) Lawn Bowls XXI Games Gold Coast, Australia (Cook Islands team) (Bronze medal in the Mens’ Pairs)

2022 Aidan Zittersteijn (2013) Lawn Bowls XXII Games Birmingham, England.(Cook Islands team)

TWO TOP APSAA AWARDS FOR JACOB:
A big congratulations to Jacob Waitere (2002-2006) who at the 2026 APSAA Conference was awarded two of their highest honours, Jacob was awarded Life Membership of the association and the Joe Massingham Award for Meritorious Service.
Life Membership is reserved for individuals whose service, leadership, and influence have left a lasting legacy on the association.
The Joe Massingham Award recognises those who have given exceptional service to the advancement of the association through their commitment, leadership, and positive professional influence.
Jacob was the first NZ President of APSAA (Asia-Pacific Student Accommodation Association) and was a recipient of the Rolf Visser Award for global initiatives.
In 2006, Jacob was a prefect at Spotswood and was awarded the Joe Greenwood Prize for "Service to the School".
He is currently based in Christchurch. Well done Jacob.

KRISTIE INSPIRING HER YEAR 8 STUDENTS:
A big well done to Kristie Boyd (1990-1994) who has been inspiring her Year 8 students at Manukorihi Intermediate School "to be critical thinkers, creative and have time to do what is really, rally important". Great teaching Kristie!

THOMAS'S NEW ENERGY COMPANY:
A big well done to Thomas Wiseman (2004-2008) who has established a new energy company "BlueGreen Frontier".
Thomas is the general Manager of TIS (Total industrial Services).
The new company works as a collective where they harness the power on solar panels and sell it to its customers.
Well done Thomas.

ETHAN WINS NATIONAL RADIO AWARD:
A big congratulations to Ethan Griffiths (2016-2019) who won the "Best New Talent- Journalist" award at the NZ Radio & Podcast Awards held in Auckland last week.
Ethan is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, based in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He joined NZME as a print journalist in 2020, previously working as an Open Justice reporter in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington, and as a general reporter in Whanganui.
Well done Ethan.

800 TRUST WINS NATIONAL AWARD:
A big congratulations to Darryl Egarr (1989-1993) and his 800 Trust on winning the "Best Hi-tech Solution for the Public Good" category at the 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards function held in Auckland recently.
Darryl is the co-founder with Nick Heslop of the "Hark" predator monitoring system that is run by a solar panel and is self-loading.
This new technology will assist Towards Predator Free Taranaki achieve the national goal of being predator free by 2050.

THIRD SOLO TRANS-TASMAN YACHT CHALLENGE WAS A NIGHTMARE FOR GRAEME:
After two previous successful solo trans-Tasman challenges, New Plymouth Yacht Club member Graeme Francis's (1970-197?) third attempt could easily have become a tragedy. Thanks to Graeme's preparedness in having all of the right equipment on board he managed to survive the night and make it safely back to NZ. Read his story.